By Eamonn Tiernan

Australian captain Alicia Molik has backed Sam Stosur to rejoin the national team for their crucial Fed Cup world group play-off tie against the Netherlands in April.

Australia won through to the fixture after beating the Ukraine 3-2 in Canberra last month and Molik has decided to play the next tie on a hard court.

Australian Fed Cup captain Alicia Molik has backed Sam Stosur to return for their showdown against the Netherlands. Credit:karleen minney

A victory over the Dutch will see Australia move back into the top eight countries for the 2019 competition.

Molik praised the Canberra event but said she wasn't sure she could "get it past the bosses" to bring a second consecutive tie back to the capital.

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"We'd like to play on hard court for the next tie, venue we don't know, we're working through that and what's available at the time. It doesn't matter too much where it is but hopefully somewhere warm," Molik said.

"We really enjoyed played here in Canberra and would love to do it again but two in a row, I'm not sure I'd be able to get that past the bosses, but we hope to revisit Canberra because it was a really successful week."

Australia has not featured in the world group since 2015 and after just getting past an undermanned Ukraine side, Molik admitted they'd need to be better against the Dutch.

Australia holds an 8-2 advantage over the Netherlands since 1966, but lost the last encounter 4-1 in Holland in 2015.